


The Dangers of Comfy Chairs

by coolbreezemage



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Birthday Presents, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Multi, Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:27:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22747054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coolbreezemage/pseuds/coolbreezemage
Summary: In which Annette redecorates the library, Felix is thoroughly enchanted, Ashe has a poorly-hidden crush, and Dimitri is incapable of subtlety.
Relationships: Annette Fantine Dominic/Felix Hugo Fraldarius, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert
Comments: 9
Kudos: 101





	The Dangers of Comfy Chairs

“Sooo…. If Tomas was actually a creepy monster dude who was in league with the Death Knight,” Annette said through a mouthful of cheese and vegetable stew, “then who’s in charge of the library now?”

“I suppose one of the monks will take it over,” Ingrid said, spearing a choice chunk of meat on her knife.

“Whoever it is,” Mercedes put in, “they’re probably going to need some help getting settled in.”

“We should help out!” Annette lit up at the idea. She swung her fork for emphasis, forcing Felix to duck under a splatter of sauce.

“Oops,” she said, blushing pink. “Sorry.”

Felix grumbled something inaudible and went back to attacking his food. Annette giggled. Did he realize how adorable that was? But she made sure to be careful with the next few bites. The stew was too delicious to waste: one of Dedue’s creations, warm and rich and flavorful without being too spicy for her taste. 

“That’s a really good idea!” Ashe said, finally looking up from his book, a well-worn copy of _Loog and the Treasure of the Great Mountain_. “Your Highness, what do you think?”

Dimitri glanced up from his barely-touched plate and blinked. “I- Forgive me, I was distracted. What were you saying?”

Before Annette could answer, Felix cut in. “You’ve been nothing but distracted all month, boar,” he accused. “Maybe you’d be happier in a pen.”

Ashe’s book snapped closed. “Leave him alone, Felix,” he said, gentle eyes growing sharp. 

“Please,” Dimitri began, clearly uneasy, “there’s no need to argue over me. I’m fine.”

Even Annette could tell that wasn’t true, but Mercedes had told her enough times that bringing it up over dinner wasn’t the wisest idea. 

Ashe sank in his seat. “I’m sorry, Your Highness.”

“It’s all right, Ashe. I appreciate it. I just don’t want there to be unnecessary trouble.” Dimitri put a hand on his arm. _That_ was something he’d never had dared do just a few months ago. Annette thought to herself that Mercedes’s advice about quietly watching people for the little gestures that spoke of how they felt was actually a very good idea. Especially if it meant she knew long before Ashe did that his affection for their prince was returned…

Annette smiled. They were absolutely adorable. She was about to say so, and watch them both blush, when another idea came to her.

“Ooh, we should put some comfy chairs in the library, like they have at the School of Sorcery!”

“That would be lovely!” Mercedes exclaimed.

Dimitri nodded, thoughtful. “As long as the Professors don’t disapprove, I see no reason why we shouldn’t suggest it.”

***

It was utterly ridiculous, Felix thought, for anybody to be so excited over _chairs_ , but… if it meant he got to see Annette smile like that, then he supposed he could tolerate the inanity of it. At least for a little while.

Unlike most of her ideas, which were forgotten as soon as something new and brighter came up (even if said ideas involved a fire that was then left burning unattended, or a piece of equipment half-unassembled and littered across the floor, or any of the multitude of other things that made Felix’s brow pinch and voice grow sharp with worry…), Annette seemed determined to follow through with her plans for the library.

An inquiry to Seteth revealed that the library was now under the command of a quiet nun by the name of Adrienne, who had rather different ideas than Tomas on what was appropriate for students to read. As she explained, she had travelled a lot as a young teacher before settling down with the Church, and had seen many different ways of educating youth, and as a nun had learned to appreciate mundane comforts. Which was a roundabout way of saying, yes, she found the idea of armchairs and books of ancient legends very agreeable indeed. 

They enlisted the help of Dimitri and Raphael to move the new furniture from the workshop up to the library. As soon as they were in place, Annette leapt into one of the chairs. The cushions went _pwooof_ under her weight. She leaned back into the plush embrace and sighed.

“These are going to be dangerous,” she commented, draping herself over the chair’s fat arms. She wiggled until she was comfortable and then called to him again, “Come on, Felix! Sit with me!”

He wanted to, but not with everybody else _watching_. “I’ve got training to do,” he said.

“You promised we would study magic!” Annette protested.

“ _Did_ you promise her, Felix?” Dimitri asked sternly.

Felix glared. “Fine,” he grumbled, and took a seat on the second chair. They were indeed very soft. A useless and silly indulgence, but at least it made the others happy. 

Annette frowned. “Now you’re too far away.” Before Felix could move, she leapt up from the other chair and perched on the arm of Felix’s. 

He froze at the sudden closeness. “Um. All right…” He reached for a book, any book, and came up with one of Ashe’s ridiculous volumes of knights’ tales in his hand. 

“Ah, I can return that,” said Dimitri, who apparently recognized the book and its owner just from a glimpse of the cover. Of course he did. 

“Take it,” he said, throwing it vaguely in Dimitri’s direction, forcing him to grab it out of the air with a surprised grunt. He could already imagine Ingrid’s outraged reaction: _how dare you throw a book, Felix, you need to be more respectful…_

Annette was looking at him, wide eyes expectant and waiting. 

“Fine. Let’s get started,” he said, picking up the correct book this time. “You can all leave us alone now,” he added over his shoulder. He turned back to Annette, but not before he saw Dimitri _smiling_ at him. Why did he bother? Everyone knew it was a lie. Or if they didn’t, it was only a matter of time. 

Annette wasted no time diving into her studies. How did she expect him to focus when she was right there next to him, deep in thought, reciting a complicated mathematical formula with practiced ease or humming to herself as she read over a passage of history. 

He shook his head. He needed to get ahold of himself. He couldn’t afford to be distracted by something as ridiculous as the feelings that sprang up whenever he saw her face or heard her voice. 

There had to be something he could do about it.

***

“You should stop worrying, Ashe!” Annette insisted, watching him pace a lap around the library for the fifth time in as many minutes. They were lucky Adrienne had decided to go to bed early, or she’d probably be scolding them for the fuss. Even a nun’s patience only went so far, and Ashe had already spent most of the evening fretting over this. 

“It’s important!” he said, still pacing. “He got me that book for _my_ birthday. I need to get him something good for his.”

“He'll be happy with anything you get him. I promise,” Annette said, peering over the top of a very untidy notebook. She didn’t add, _because he loves you_ , only because it would probably make Ashe even more frantic and worried than he already was.

Ashe only buried his head in his hands and moaned. “I can’t just get him _anything_ , he’s royalty! It needs to be something special!” he complained, running his hands through his hair. 

She shrugged. “Mercie and I are making him cookies, that’s not very special.”

“It’s special when you do it!” Ashe insisted. “Those feather-shaped ones you made after Ingrid’s certification exams were incredible. The jam filling and the crunchy sugar on top were perfect.” 

Annette remembered those. They’d had to remake the whole batch after she’d accidently dumped a cup of salt into the dough instead of sugar, and then remake half of them _again_ when she forgot one of the trays in the oven and burned them. Luckily Mercedes hadn’t been too upset about it, but Annette had made it up to her by buying a new jar of jam and a package of sparkly sugar to make up for what they’d wasted. And the whole thing had been worth it in the end, because even Felix tried one, after much encouragement. And he’d liked it. 

She smiled. “They were really tasty, weren’t they? Oh!” Now she had an idea. “You could cook him something? You’re really good at that.”

Ashe shook his head, ruffling his feathery hair even further. “No, Dedue’s already going to do that. He’s got an entire menu planned. And the Professor is going to give His Highness a ceremonial sword…”

“They told you?” Professor Byleth usually kept all their plans close to their chest, even ones as inconsequential as birthday gifts. 

Ashe ducked his head. “I, er, overheard them bargaining with Anna for it in the market last week. They managed to get a pretty good deal too.”

“Good for them. Anna’s tough. I was trying to buy some sheet music yesterday but her prices were ridiculous.” And she hadn’t been very impressed with Annette’s attempts to haggle them lower, forcing her to leave down-hearted and empty-handed. Oh well. At least it had been fun to search through Anna’s stock. She always had the oddest and most interesting things... “Oh! I know! I looked though Anna’s box of books yesterday, and there was this one about ancient weapons from outside Fodlan, like stuff from Almyra and Sreng...”

Ashe turned to her, eyes alight. “That’s perfect! Thank you! I hope she still has it...”

Annette yawned and leaned back in the chair, letting the notebook fall onto her lap. “I’ll go with you tomorrow after class. Right now I’m going to take a nap…”

Ashe frowned. “We should get back. It’s almost curfew.”

He was right, but she really didn’t want to move, not after she’d gotten comfy. “We’ve got some time left.”

She heard the other chair creak as he sat. “All right, just a little longer…”

***

“I told you we’d find them here,” Felix said, staring down at the sleeping forms of Annette and Ashe in the library chairs. “At least she hasn’t blown up the whole building yet.”

Mercedes giggled in delight. Sylvain surveyed the two with a dangerous gleam in his eye. He grinned. “Wow, Felix, your girlfriend is even more adorable like this.”

“Don’t wake her up!” Felix hissed. Sylvain’s grin only grew wider. He took advantage of Felix’s self-imposed silence to make kissy faces at him and the sleeping Annette, wiggling eyebrows and all, earning himself several piercing glares and no doubt some bruises the next time they sparred. 

“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, Felix,” Dimitri said, utterly oblivious as always. “You love her. That’s something to be valued.” 

“As if you’d know anything about that, boar,” Felix muttered under his breath, the epithet rendered hollow by the tender way in which Dimitri gathered Ashe gently into his arms and soothed his confused, half-asleep mumblings. 

“Rest, Ashe,” he said into Ashe’s ear. “I’m taking you to your room.” 

It was pretense, nothing more, Felix told himself, trying to believe it. He grumbled and lifted Annette from the cushions, cautiously balancing her slight weight against his chest. Still asleep, as far as he could tell, she smiled and pressed her head against his breast. He had a moment of fear that his suddenly-pounding heartbeat might wake her, but he brushed it aside. 

Once Dimitri’s footsteps had faded away, he carried Annette down the hall and towards her room, extinguishing the library lamps as he went. She slept through all of it, curled in his arms and heavier than he expected, but he pressed on.

Felix pushed open the door to her room with a shoulder. For the first time he could think of, this was a case in which her carelessness was a good thing, because it meant she hadn’t locked it. He revised that opinion when he narrowly avoided tripping on a pile of books she’d left in the middle of the floor. 

He set her down in the bed and pulled the covers over her shoulders. Against his better judgement, he stood there several moments longer, studying her face in the half-light. She was so _vibrant_ when she was awake, hardly ever staying still even for a moment, leaping from one thing to another as an interest took her. And her singing… he couldn’t forget that, no matter how much she might want him to. 

He sighed. Best to leave before she woke up and interrogated him. He was almost through the door when a sleepy murmur came from the bed. 

“Thanks, Felix.”

“Go to sleep,” he said, and shut the door.

**Author's Note:**

> Come chat on my discord! https://discord.gg/ka8wxHN


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